Awesome Pack Review: April 2015

I really hate having to pause certain subscriptions, and I especially hate it with Awesome Pack, because they do such a good job customizing each pack to our interests. However, we are now two months behind on playing any of the games we've received and until we settle in the new house, it doesn't make sense to have more to move. I will definitely return to Awesome Pack immediately upon settling, though!

This month, we received our cat toys, but asked to hold off on the little bonus items simply because everything is in boxes right now and the less we have to move, the better. 

Game Box Monthly Review: April 2015

For two months now, I have received awesome tabletop games - and played none. I admit it's not entirely because of the move, although I swear that's most of it. Most of my free time has been spent cleaning, packing, organizing, etc. The other reason is that I've been playing a lot more video games than normal, which is already something I do way too much of, so my free time has been depleted even more!

Anyway, Game Box Monthly has now sent two amazing games I need to play and probably won't play until July! This month's is really intriguing. Stones of Fate is a memory-based strategy game. 

Awesome Pack Review (Boxy's Version): March 2015

I am such a fan of Awesome Pack. When I first saw this subscription box, I felt like it was meant for me, but then I worried that it wouldn't work because most of the reviews I saw were from families. We don't have kids and we don't play games, outside of online games, with friends due to distance. So I wasn't sure it would end up working, but every month, Awesome Pack just really seems to understand us. 

Since Crafty signed up for her own month, I was pretty excited, because to get the same subscription in a month and have them be so different clearly shows the customization that goes into these boxes. 

Our primary game was Al Rashid. We haven't had a chance to play anything yet, but this is a complex trading game that sounds really intriguing. Since we loved the Road to Canterbury game so much last month, this seems like a good fit, too. One thing I have to say impresses me about Awesome Pack is the quality of the games they include. We've found that the games are always well over what we pay for the subscription and the value of the box is excellent. In addition, after three months, I feel like it grows even more customized and personal each time. I was very happy with our first box, truly impressed with the second, and this one - our third - feels even more like Awesome Pack knows us. 

Game Box Monthly Review: March 2015

I have so much fun getting my Game Box Monthly boxes each month. This month's game sounds amazing and I can't wait to play it! With the move, things have been a bit hectic, but I'm hoping we will have a chance to play before everything is in boxes!

Our game this month is Titans Tactics. The description reads: "Titans Tactics is a fast-paced 2 player skirmish board game designed to deliver deep strategy in 30 minutes or less. Lead Factions of Dragons, Angels, Pirates, Monsters, or Undead Soldiers into battle against your opponent in a race to become the most powerful Titan.

Factions contain six Champions, each with unique skills and abilities. Every game Players choose three of the six to fight in the arena. Champions can take and deal damage but cannot be killed, and zero sum scoring determines the winner. Clever and tactical use of their Champions will allow a player to claim victory.

Players manage their Champions' abilities via their hand of Skill Cards, spending them to sling fireballs, backstab their enemies, charge their foes, and teleport with ease. With no random elements, tactical play shines though. Thinking and planning ahead is highly rewarded."

Love Letter Game Review

I was so excited to get Love Letter this past month from Game Box Monthly because I've heard great things about it. Because it's a fairly easy game to pick up quickly and it doesn't require a lot of rules/setup, my husband and I tried it within a week of receiving it (he's in that part of the school year where he has so little energy to do much of anything and winter isn't helping).

Interview with Brian of Game Box Monthly

We are SO excited to have Brian, the owner of Game Box Monthly, here with us. We set up an exclusive interview, so let's sit down and talk about the subscription box, why he started it, and his goals. We are big fans (Game Box Monthly was in our top five for February and we have a review of our game coming up tomorrow). We also really love to get to know the people behind products. 

As a token of thanks, Brian is also offering readers a discount on a month's subscription! If you want to try it out, enter the code OUTSIDETHEBOX, which will give you $4 off!

Now, to the interview! :)

Awesome Pack Review: February 2015 (with Giveaway)

I love gaming, including tabletop games, and Awesome Pack is such a cool idea. It's a box customized to your family with games and toys sent to you each month. If you have pets, they also get something to play with in the box! Since there are only two of us with two cats, I wasn't sure if Awesome Pack would be geared more towards kids. Last month's was, of course, awesome, though, so I was so excited for this box to arrive! (By the way, Awesome Pack is being awesome and donating a month for a giveaway, so check that out at the end!)

The first item we saw was the Rainbow Cat Charmer - and it works. I don't know what it is, but the second it was out of the box, our fat male cat was rolling around on the floor trying to battle it. Eventually our female cat joined him and that occupied us all for about 30 minutes!

Game Box Monthly Review: February 2015

I personally emailed Brian at Game Box Monthly immediately after opening this box just to compliment him on how awesome this was. This is a straightforward subscription box that sends you games each month based on what you own/report having, as well as partnerships with game developers. I love video games - a lot. However, I also really enjoy playing tabletop games, and it's slowly becoming a dying art now that everything is digital.

For a while now, I've heard about how awesome of a game Love Letter is and I actually almost bought it last week because it was on sale. I decided to wait specifically because I knew this box and my Awesome Pack are coming, and I still have a game from last month to play from Awesome Pack. I figured I would get Love Letter over the summer when my husband was home from school and we had more time together. So when I opened the box and found it inside, I was beyond excited!

Game Box Monthly Review: January 2015

Game Box Monthly is a very straightforward subscription box. Each month, you receive a game for those who love strategic deck building and tabletop games. The system in place is that you complete a checklist of all the games you already own, which you update monthly before the orders go out. That way, you won't get something you already have. Otherwise, it's a little up to what is available what you actually get.

We received a message earlier this month with a survey. There were two games under debate for the month. One was a strategic card game that could only be played by three players, and the other was a resource strategy game for 1-6 players. We were asked which we would prefer. Since my husband and I don't have people around us we can game with, I went for the 1-6 so we could both play and we didn't need to worry about forcing someone else to come over to play cards.

Awesome Pack Review: January 2015

Well, this won't come as much of a surprise, but this month's Awesome Pack was AWESOME! I liked it so much I immediately contacted Little Miss Crafty and tried to convert her. I know she's debating. At first glance, it's somewhat pricey so it is the kind of subscription you may want to see reviews of before committing. I saw a bunch of reviews and they were all for people different from me and my husband, but I am such a game fanatic that I had to take the risk. I love board games, tabletop RPGs, card games, video games, and game shows. Awesome Pack felt made for me - and it really was!